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End the use of animals for PTSD research

I was disturbed to read about federally-funded experiments on monkeys at Georgetown University to study human post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

These experiments have received $1,415,706 since 2013 in taxpayer dollars, and the project is scheduled to continue until 2018.

The experiments involve delivering chemicals into the brains of monkeys to elicit aggressive responses, then observing their social interactions. They exemplify all that is wrong with attempts to reconstruct a complex human psychological disorder in animals, and they should be ended.

A growing body of evidence shows that over 90% of behavioral neuroscience experiments on animals fail to translate to humans. This number is in-line with similar observations on the inability of animal models to produce results that are relevant for human medicine, including pharmacology and toxicology.

Joseph Garner, professor of Comparative Medicine at Stanford University has written: “Pharma has aggressively disinvested in animal research in the last few years and the value of animal research for advancing human health is being questioned at the highest federal levels.” He refers to “…the coming paradigm shift in biomedical research, from a reductionist animal-based “genomic and phenotyping” era to a human-based “biomarker and personalized medicine” era.” [ILAR J. 2014; 55(3): 438–456.]

Twenty-first century science and medicine provide excellent tools for safely and ethically probing the human brain for answers to brain pathology.

I urge the NIMH to raise its standards by eliminating inapplicable animal experiments on PTSD that waste taxpayer funds and perpetuate outdated modalities. These experiments are archaic in their construction and outcomes, cause intense animal suffering, and are a disservice to PTSD sufferers.

TO: Dr. Bruce Cuthbert, Acting Director National Institute of Mental Health CC: Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director, NIH

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